Humming Bird

I have used them and they don't work like draino for me. They work for me if I'm just feeling "kinda stuck" to help that feeling go away. If I'm stuck bad they don't help. Thank goodness It only took me a few episodes to learn my lesson. To stay regular I eat a fiber gummie every day.

My phrenic nerve pain was real bad for months. It then became my full signal for awhile. It stopped being as severe after I lost about 45-50 pounds. At 19 months post-op it still comes back now and then. I found that putting a cheap OTC menthol pain patch on my shoulder helps. They have them at walmart for about $4 a package.

I think much of it depends on the person and how tight their band is in most cases. For me, no matter how much I chew and no matter how tight my band is, some things are off my food list. I can try to chew the heck out of things like steak, porkchops, bread and Pasta, but after I swallow them I'm in pain. Not all sliders are bad in my book. Yogurt, Protein shakes, Soup, oatmeal .... all slide through, but these are things I eat all the time. Icecream is a slider I have to be mindful of.

Oh man, my arms are the worst ! I had quite a bit of underarm fat and now I have big bags of sloppy floppy skin there. Short of plastic surgery, there is nothing that can be done about the skin. I think loose skin looks better draped over muscles, but the skin is not going to change. I'm not sure if I will ever do any plastic surgery. I'm just glad I lost so much weight at this point.

I Love Love Love this video !!! It made me tear up! You have done so well!!!! :youcandothis: :clap:

Oh my gosh....... I agree with everything Cleo's mom just said. You should ALWAYS be able to drink fluids. Of course right after the surgery it will be sipping, but the way it is going for you could have been very dangerous. What do they mean by throwing up and regurgitation are different????? Um, No, They are the same in my book and it is not normal. That is so lame. Is there any way you can go to someone else for follow up? You are not getting the follow up and care you need.

It sounds to me like you may need a re-treat on the root canal therapy. If it were me I would have it done by an endodontist. I hope you have dental insurance because a re-treat costs more. Antibiotics may help the pain go away for awhile, but it will come back. It might buy you a bit of time so you can save money for the re-treat. They can go through the existing crown and then you can just get a filling in the access hole. You don't have to get a new crown.

Last summer I got a bathing suit top that has sort of thick fabric ties around the neck to boost up the twins kinda like a halter top style and wore shorts. It wasn't too bad for fishing, but wouldn't wear it where there are people who aren't family. Try a bathing suit with a sarong.

I love the new pic.... it's fun. You know how people complain about what they look like without their clothes on. You just took it a few layers deeper. You look great without your clothes or flesh on! Love the pose!

That is just not true in my case. A dime? What would be the point of all the chew chew chewing? If I swallowed anything that size I would be in severe pain and throwing up. My surgeon told me to always figure there is no pill small enough to take whole. There have been a couple times I needed to take something I could not find in liquid or chewable form. Through trial and error I figured out it is so much easier to crush and then disolve in a teaspoon of warm Water. It goes down so much better and then I don't have nasty little bits left behind.

I like to think of it this way .......... the chances of dying from obesity related issues is much higher than dying from lapband surgery.

We went to see Tron in 3D at the IMAX. Very cool and even better when you go with the 9 year old birthday boy

Interesting info on the video. I watch a few other videos while I was there. Cleo's, does this mean you are leaning more toward mini bypass?

This thread is from 2006. You may just want to start your own thread to get better info.

Yum, that potato leek soup sounds very good. It's been pretty cold here too and I don't like it one bit! We have not had as much snow as we normally do, but could get dumped on quite a bit in the next 3 months. This area is known for getting a couple feet of heavy wet snow at a time when the spring storms hit. We're off to the movies later today and then maybe I will finish with the quilt top.

I can sometimes feel my band and my port. As I get thinner I can feel them more. My stomach can't feel the band it's more like the areas around it. Sometimes I just have to change my sleeping position or something. None of it is a painful feeling, but yes, I can feel it inside me sometimes. I get used to it and it's no big deal.

If you get stuck, slime ....... you do have restriction. You may have to play around with it a bit to figure out what is going on. It could be that you are not chewing well or taking too big bites. It could be that you are eating types of food you can no longer tolerate no matter your restriction level. I can only go by my own experience. There are many foods I can no longer tolerate no matter how tight my band is, so I don't eat them. I don't chew my food to a liquid state where it grosses me out. I just take very small bites and make sure each bite is well chewed with no large chunks making it down to my stomach. I get hungry between meals and just have to eat a little something or drink a Protein shake. If I got another fill to make things stick with me longer I would be so tight I would die of malnutrition...lol. You just have to find what works for you. Many bandsters eat 4, 5, 6 tiny meals. If you are losing weight at a steady pace it's a good thing no matter how much time passes between eating.

50 pounds is a great milestone...... time for a little reward!! (non-food related of course)

I don't remember my Dr. ever using the word restriction. There are very few days where I can live on 3 "meals" and nothing else. I get hungry between (real hunger) and have to eat a bit of something. This is another area where we are all different. I think many docs would give people a fill if they heard the person couldn't stick to the 3 meals, but in my case, even with a tiny fill more, my food choices would be even more limited than they already are. I would suffer from malnutrition and shrink down to an unhealthy weight. One time when I was talking to my surgeon I had lost a large amount of weight and he was very pleased with my progress. I was very honest about not exercising. He said most people don't lose that kind of weight unless they exercise like crazy. He commented about being very conservative with my fills because I am very sensitive to them. I can feel a very big difference with even a .1 or .2 fill. He didn't want to change my eating pattern and said "why mess with a good thing when it is working so well." I never count, measure, track, or journal anything. I pretty much just get set in my own eating pattern and wing it.

It works both ways for me. The band does restrict the amount of food I can eat. The band also makes it so I can not eat some types of foods. The band has also made food not as appealing as it used to be, so in that sense it takes away head hunger too.

soda/pop, even diet, is very high in sodium (salt) and very acidic. Gateraide is very high in sugar .......... neither one would be good to drink for someone with the band. I do not drink Crystal light ever bacause I don't like the taste. I know I don't get in enough Water daily. I drink quite a bit of iced tea with sweet-n-low and sometimes just clear ice water. In the summer if I want something with a kool-aid taste like crystal light I go for nectar brand roadside lemonaid Protein drinks.

I'm not a guy, but will reply anyway. Great NSV!!! It feels so good when other people notice the weightloss. Hey, maybe you should change your screen name to "nice ass guy" !! :wink3:

There is a great section here at LBT for gals with your same issues. Many who have PCOS and have had "band babies." Best wishes to you on your journey

Bummer ..... they should have given you liquid Vicodin.

I do love my band and it has worked very well for me. So many factors come in to play with this thing. You never really know all the details that will come in until you get the band. As you read through all the posts here at LBT you see just how different it is for everyone. You don't know how hard you may have to work at it or how easy it may be for you. You just have to have your mind set on doing whatever you need to do no matter what. For me it's been easier than I thought it would be, but a big part of that might be mental. If you find yourself with emotional stuff after you get banded, go talk to someone about it just like one of the above posters does. After I got banded I had a very strong feeling of wanting every pound gone right now! Today! All of it! It's tough to have to accept the weightloss may seem slow and it may be a long road ahead, but at least you are doing something to get that weight off. I keep remembering the old saying, "how do you eat an elephant?" ........."one bite at a time." With weightloss, how do you lose 80, 90,100, 150 pounds? One pound at a time. The first year I lost 100 pounds and then it slowed down to about a pound per month. Today I have lost 109 pounds ...... gone forever! I lost it all one pound at a time.