PharmaGirl

Great job on the ticker Tam-Tam. Really like the ladybird on the daisies. Very cool. If you wanted, you could add the date you were banded to your signature so we can all see how well you're doing.

Hi guys

To get your own ticker: First, click on anyone's ticker. A new window should open up. You choose create your own ticker and click on the weight loss areas. Choose the background for your ticker (16 pages to choose from) then choose next and choose your marker then choose next then enter your details (including a password) and voila it is created. Copy everything in the bb code area and then go to your profile, click where it says customize profile (to the right just under your name) and then click on edit signature and paste the code you copied from the ticker web site. Save and you are all done. You can preview signature first before you save if you like.

Hey Veal,

Great to hear you're doing better than yesterday.

Yeah, get yourself a ticker and even though you're "photo" phobic get yourself a before shot (if you look in the before and after photo thread, there's quite a few people who are sorry they didn't take one).

To get a ticker click on anyone's ticker. A new window should open up. You choose create your own ticker and click on the weight loss areas. Choose the background for your ticker (16 pages to choose from) then choose next and choose your marker then choose next then enter your details and voila it is created. Copy everything in the bb code area and then go to your profile, click where it says customize profile (to the right just under your name) and then click on edit signature and paste the code you copied from the ticker web site. Save and you are all done.

Hi Veal,

How are you going today? Drinking more?

Hey Sissy, Could you please add me to your list - Lise on the 9th; me on the 23rd.

Thanks for pulling all the names together in one place.

Thanks BG for pulling everyone together in the one place! Looking forward to sharing experiences.

Hi to all the fellow bunny bandsters

My partner and I are both being banded in April. Lise is being done on the 9th of April and I am being done on the 23rd. Whoo hoo! Let's all enjoy this together!

There's another thread specifically for the April Bandsters in the support groups area - is there a way to pull everyone together?

Hi Veal and Hi Tam-Tam!

Congratulations to you Veal and to you too Tam-Tam.

Great to hear everything went ok with your surgery Veal. I totally get you with not telling people. I don't think there's a "right" or "wrong" thing to do - we do what we believe will be best for us. Like you, I definitely don't want visitors at the hospital - I want to be left alone when I'm not feeling my best.

I have only been to the clinic in The Avenue once (3pm on Wednesday 4 March) but hopefully our paths will cross at some time. I'm seeing Stephen Blamey at the clinic (whom I know professionally through all the work he does for Medicare and Victorian hospitals) - I think he is awesome.

As to not feeling hungry or thirsty after the surgery and finding it difficult to get sufficient fluids in - maybe freezing some weak low-joule cordial into something a bit harder than a slushee (or something like that) and sucking on that might work - the coldness might also help alleviate pain and inflammation around the band (if there is any - I don't know). Did they advise any metamucil to make sure you get enough fibre and not get constipated?

Tam-Tam is right - half a kilo is not something to worry about - probably just a bit of Fluid from inflamation around the tummy after the surgery (especially if you're premenstrual).

Anyway, Veal, please keep posting and letting me know how you're doing. I'll do the same.

Tam-Tam - thanks for posting. Are you feeling hungry yet? I gotta say - you are amazing - walking 2-3 km less than a week after surgery. I'd feel crap after walking 2 or 3 kms and that is with no surgery! Did you walk that far regularly before surgery? If you didn't, I can totally understand being in a mindset that is keen to everything possible to embrace the new lifestyle but please look after yourself - don't go too fast and don't overdo it lest you make things more difficult in the long run. Again, however, you gotta do what feels right for you.

Veal's suggestion of getting the other half to help out with the toddler (and the other two too) sounds like a good plan to me!

Yes, have decided to start the Optislim phase early but only to substitute 2 meals per day (the two I have at home with my partner) until the last two weeks. This will be my demonstration of support even though she may be ok even if I eat around her. Like Veal, my difficulties are going to be times when no-one else is around or there's not a lot to distract me.

Finally, thanks to Ann for posting again. I got such a clear mental picture when you said "I would slice off little by little, thinking no one would notice, that I was just "straightening" the cake, until finally half the cake was gone!" had me laughing so hard I nearly wet myself. I soooo know what you mean. Good luck with getting things together for the insurance company. Keep in touch and let us know how things are progressing.

Hi Ann,

Thanks for your post. We're both hoping it will be easier to cope if both of us want the 'wrong' foods out the house and if we each have the other around, understanding how we're feeling, and to push us through the tough spots.

Sounds like your husband may come around given the right incentive. Once he sees you feeling better and with more energy, hopefully he'll be running to make his appointment.

Read your other posts and I have to tell you I have exactly the same fears - lack of exercise and sweet sticky food is my downfall (my partner's is more lack of exercise plus the savoury stuff). However, I also know that, once I start losing weight and feeling better, I won't be missing those foods in the short term. I'm hoping that the lapband means I won't be able to fall off the wagon big time (like eating half a cake) down the track, which is what starts the cycle of regaining weight again, feeling crap about myself and then gorging myself further (so that I eventually end up worse than where I started).

Anyway, good luck with your journey. Looking forward to sharing experiences.

Do you have a date set yet?

Both my partner and I will be thinking of you tomorrow.

I imagine that you'll probably be reading this after you get home from having your lap band in. Hope you're feeling as well as is possible given those circumstances.

Wow - 10kg in 4 weeks is an awesome effort. Hope you took your "before" photo before you lost those kgs!

Thanks for the recommendation on the Soup. Have now ordered the Optislim chicken soup and also the pumpkin soup to give us a couple of savoury options instead of the just the sweet vanilla/chocolate/coffee stuff.

Yes, will be great to share experiences. We discussed whether we would tell others and decided on pretty much telling most of our family and our good friends and people who we believe will be supportive. Hope we won't be bitten in the ass by this decision. We are not telling people who bitch about other people.

Yep, we're patients at the Centre for Bariatric Surgery a couple of doors down from the hospital. If you are too, our paths might cross soon.

Please let us know how you're going as soon as you can.

Hi Veal,

Thanks for posting a response (I was getting worried no-one would).

How exciting for you - tomorrow!! I can understand the nervousness. I'm nervous and I've still got almost 6 weeks to go. Can't imagine how I'll be the day before.

You did well to do 4 weeks of the Optislim (didn't know there was a pudding but I'll be out shopping for it for sure). I'm definitely leaning toward doing the same. Did you lose much just doing the Optislim?

Wishing you all of the very best for tomorrow. Hope to hear from you soon after that. Looking forward to sharing our experiences with you as we go.

Good luck

Hi everyone (with a special hello to all my fellow Aussies)

My date for lap-banding is set for 23 April 2009. Will have the band inserted at the The Avenue in Melbourne.

I am excited and scared all the same time. The success of many on this site inspire me and the prospect of future success is very exciting. Past failed attempts at maintaining weight loss haunt me (I've lost weight then put it back on [plus more] more times than I care to remember).

Would love to hear from others of you that felt the same way at the start of your journeys and who have succeeded.

My partner is having a lap-band inserted on 9 April. We both have fatty livers and have therefore been advised to do the Optislim VLCD liquid diet (with veggies allowed) commencing two weeks before insertion of the band (next week for her and on 9 April for me).

Any advice on surviving this would be greatly appreciated. Also, advice on whether it would be a good idea for me to try and support her by doing shakes maybe for brekkie and the evening meal two weeks before I really need to would be great.

Looking forward to sharing the journey with you all!

For my friends in the US who don't think in kgs