Somedayslim:)

WOW! You all are an inspiration to me to get off my fat butt and exercise!! I want to do it and seeing your results is the best motivation. I love the positive outlook all of you have. Keep up the good work and I am going to try and follow in your footsteps:wink:

- have my husband wrap his arms around me and feel like I am the little women instead of the fat mama! LOL - wear a bathing suit on the boat instead of staying fully dressed... - have more energy because I am not carring around 100 extra pounds. - see an old friend I haven't seen in years and know that they aren't thinking geez she really has put some weight on! - ride my scooter and be able to pick up some speed because it isn't getting bogged down due to my weight - hike without huffing and puffing - feel comfortable on the back of my husbands motorcycle.

Hi Lisa, Hang in there. Give yourself time to heal and let the swelling go down. They say that the weight you lose before your first fill may be gained back once you start eating food. That if you keep the weight off that you lost during the pre and post diet phase then it is a bonus. So don't beat yourself up! I know after going through the surgery you really want the weight to come off but I don't think it is unusual to gain some back. I gained back two pounds and held that weight for four days and then just lost 1 pound. So don't beat yourself up. We all lose at different rates. The most important thing right now is for you to heal and stay healthy! The weight is going to come off, trust me.

The 15th day I was told I could start mushy food which happens to be today. I found that drinking warm mint tea helped when I was hungry or thought that I needed to eat.Sometimes just getting on here and looking at the success stories made me realize I can do whatever is asked to make this a success. I would try to follow your Doctors advice if possible. There are different kinds of bands and different circumstances that might have caused your Doctor to give you the advice that he did. Good Luck!

Wow that is what I would like to be doing - walking 3 or 4 miles at a time...I have really let myself get out of shape! I am up to walking 30 minutes at a time and would like to go hiking this weekend at Garden of the Gods in Southern Illinois. It is really beautiful and hopefully since I will then be on mushy food I will have the energy! I am starting to see a small change in the way my clothes fit and that is very exciting. I hope it will continue to be enough because I do miss my friend -food.

Wow! You are in my head and have lived my life.

congrats on your weight loss Mom! It is wonderful to be going down instead of up! I chose the allergan band out of the two choices that I had which was allergan or johnson and johnson. I have heard that you can not get the realize band in Mexico - don't know if that is true or not but that is where I was banded. I also have the 4cc band not the 10cc band. The 4cc band is smaller which you can see in the picture I am going to attach (I am going to try to attach LOL). It was my Doctors decision to use that band. It seems like you need fewer fills with this band which makes sense because the inner circle is smaller to begin with. Hope this helps. Allergan AP Lapband.bmp

Thanks so much Daqui and I know you can do this! You are so close to your date and I know that even though it is very exciting it is also a little scarry. You will do great and in a years time just think how wonderful you will feel. To have your hunger taken away is an amazing feeling. The surgery is worth the slight discomfort! Good Luck!

I was banded on July 3rd in Cancun by Dr.Ceron and Dr. Perez. Three other people from the states were getting banded by the same surgical team at the Amerimed Hospital in Cancun on the same day that I was. You definitely feel an immediate friendship towards your fellow bandsters going through the same thing you are! I think we were all impressed with how beautiful the hospital was and how wonderful the staff treated us. It was all in all a much better experience then I expected! I have had 3 surgeries in the states and I have to say I was treated better and not rushed out of the hospital in Mexico. The place was spotlessly clean and very modern. I arrived at the hospital around 7:30am and by 4:40pm it was all over and I was in my private room with my husband waiting for me. I felt pretty good. I did have some gas but it wasn't that bad. I did get up and walk to the rest room and walk the halls about every two hours just to try and get rid of gas. Gas pain in the past after surgery has really been an issue for me - very painful. The next morning Dr.Ceron and Dr. Perez came in and talked to me about the procedure and gave me my medical records and test results, x-rays, the picture of the band and my stomach, the box the band came in with all the information on it including the size and serial number. He explained that he didn't think I would need a fill for two or three months but that I could get one once I started feeling hunger, To give it at least 6 weeks to heal. (I still haven't felt any hunger pains and I am going on day 5!) Around 11 I was released from the hospital and we went back to the resort we were staying at. I spent most of the time lying around and walking about every two hours.The following day I did go to breakfast with my two daughters and husband. I had some caffeine free tea, had a beautiful view of the ocean and had a very relaxing time. Spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool or in my room in bed. The following day we returned to the states. The flight to Chicago is a 3 1/2 hour flight. It was delayed 1 and 1/2 hours. We had left the resort to go to the airport at 11am and didn't take off until 3:10pm. We hit some turbulence that lasted about 20 minutes and I was really beginning to feel very nauseated....by the time we got to the baggage claim at the airport I couldn't hold on anymore and started throwing up.:wink2: I threw up three times in a row - saliva. I thought great, went through all this and now I have ruined my band or I am going to have to have another surgery. So I called Dr.Perez and asked if I should go to a Doctor here to get it checked out. He asked if I was able to swallow liquids ok and I said yes and he said if the band had slipped I wouldn't even be able to swallow my own saliva. He said I was ok.:wink: So we get to my car and I have a dead battery! We call a tow truck and wait for a jump that takes another 40 minutes and finally get on our way back home to Mattoon which is another 3 hour drive. I start getting car sick. My husband has to stop and let me rest every 20 to 30 minutes or I know I am going to begin throwing up again! We finally get home after midnight! Whew!:smile2: So apart from the trip home and some minor constipation and gas I think it went pretty well. All systems are a go now and I am feeling much better. Best of all I have lost 5 pounds post op. This definitely is the best decision I could have made for my health - to get the band. Any of you out there second guessing yourself stay strong. You can do it! Good luck to all of you already banded and all waiting to be banded. With encouragement from each other we can do this!

good for you Mary! Sounds like you are recovering nicely and without gas pains!

Thank you Bobbie! Hope all goes well with your surgery today! I will be thinking about you and all of the many other bandsters getting their lap bands today. Good luck and hope you have a speedy recovery! PS - make sure you get something for nausea from your Doctor...

Thanks Juniper I am going to go get some milk of magnesia today! I am feeling a little better physically today - day 4 of my new banded life. Mentally I don't think I realized how much food played a part in my hapiness and ultimately unhapiness because of the resulting 100+ pounds of extra weight. My husband and kids grilled out last night -chirizo brauts and had bought a store bought reeses cake. Normally I would have cooked supper and a nice dessert and would have helped them eat it! I felt a little depressed not being able to join in as they were telling each other how good it was. I want to lose weight, be a normal size, but I don't want to be excluded from the family. I guess food has always been a form of entertainment for my 5 children, husband and myself. So enough of the pity party for myself. Does anyone out there know what I am talking about? Maybe all of this will change when I can start to eat food again, even so I would not have been able to eat what they were eating....

I was banded on the 3rd and only 3 days out from surgery am not feeling that great! I had hoped that recovery would be a little easier. I am tired and still gassy. Constipation is beginning to worry me as well. I am sure it will get better as time passes I just need to be patient. It helps to know that it hasn't been all roses for everyone and there may be a few people who take a little more time to recover. I am so glad I didn't have to go right back to work, my brain is not functioning well enough to really be able to do my job.

It is great to feel we are not going through this alone. I am proud of all of you and myself for taking this huge step to improving our health! Here's to be skinny!

Wow that is so true! I always thought I was fat and pictured myself that way growing up. I was a big person (5"7") compared to the little women in my family and always thought I was fat. I look back and I wasn't but now I am exaclty how I pictured myself in my mind. A strong mind has got to play in to the overall results of weightloss

Fear has got to be normal, I think we are all feeling it or have felt it!Just think what the alternative would be if you didn't have the surgery. Doing that seems to give me the strength to turn off the fear and get my determination BACK! Good luck, I will be cheering for you!

Good luck Mary - you did the right thing! Just keep your goal in mind and you will make it. To lose 33 pounds before you had surgery shows you have the determination to make this work! I am happy for you!

If we could all stay on the pre-op diet we wouldn't need the band!LOL I for one don't crave large amounts of food while on the pre-op but I do find myself watching my family eat and asking them if it is good. They have been asking for dinner and I have told them they can have a protein drink if they want LOL. I have adult children living at home who have always been used to me cooking for them! Whatever they want they got. I am a damn good cook and I love food so meals have always been a delight! I hope that once banded I don't feel the temptation as strongly as I do now. I will definately miss having an occasional beer! But it will be worth it to not have this HUGE belly! Surgery is on the 2nd of July - wish me luck, I am wishing all of you a smooth road to being skinny without setbacks!

I am having lap band surgery 7-3-09. [/url]

Hello everyone, I have been yo-yo dieting for as long as I can remember between episodes of not carring and eating without restraint. I wont bore you with the details but I have been 230 and gone down to 165 and gained all the weight back. My highest weight was 270 and lowest adult weight was 130. At 5'7" I feel good about myself when I am 145 and great at 135. My surgery is 7-3-2009 and I am so excited I can't think of anything else. The pre-op diet is going pretty well, very boring and I am still hungry but I want this surgery to be a sucess so I am trying to be strong!! I am going to Mexico to have the surgery and am a little worried about the trip back. I return 2 days after the surgery. I just pray I stay strong! My sugery is self pay...insurance wouldn't cover it. Thus the trip to Mexico. I feel like I am out of options and want my life back. It helps to see all the stories of banders who have lost the weight and are keeping it off! Good luck to all of us!!

Hello Fellow Bandsters, I am having my surgery on 7-3 and I am on a pre-op diet now(liquid Protein and no carbs)It is very exciting and somewhat scary the closer it gets!! Good luck to all of you!