jalomum

this has been some reassuring info...my periods have never been regular...PCOS thing...just having an almost normal one for a change and for the last 2 days I have had trouble even drinking my cups of tea in the mornings. Fine by the evening though and can eat a nice little chicken/pasta & salad. I have gone back to a couple of protein shakes during the day to tide me over.

I may not be around to see it but I would like to be able to sit back and enjoy the 'canned soda equivalent' of the tabacco litigation thing that is going on currently. They thought smoking wasn't danerous for us and now folks are wanting to sue for damages and blame someone for their lung cancer. There has never been a generation that has consumed this much artificially created drink from the cradle onwards and it shouldn't be much longer before we start to see the effects of it. Lambs to the slaughter, move over ciggies...another evil villain is about to be recognised, another wolf in sheeps clothing. Then it will be: blame the government, blame the ad men, blame everyone else....heaven forbid we should work it out for ourselves...Noooooo, not our own fault, how should we know it's not safe...we're only people with brains and the ability to think freely, how could we possibly have worked it out. Make your choice folks and then you get to live with the consequences. Take your pick 'better safe than sorry? or 'whatever'. TTFN

Now that makes sense :-)

Will you work with it or against it?

Just wondering if the big companies have started working on an un-carbonated, concentrated version of these over-kill advertised drinks to capture the escaping banded market...wanna make a bet how long it'll take them??

For most of us it is eating and drinking processed and un-natural foods and swilling carbonated drinks that got us where were the day before banding. Sodas are full of sugar and artificial flavourings, diet sodas are full of sugar substitutes and artificial flavorings. Many of these are suspected carcinogenics, not yet proved as doing us bad but definitely not doing us good, nothing good in them. They also de-hydrate instead of re-hydrate. The question should be 'why drink it' rather than 'why not'. We have a limited capacity to put fuel into our stressed, overweight, sluggish bodies...why put this stuff in. It never ceases to amaze me that we happily put this crap into our complicated machine of a body, finding it acceptable and blindly assuming it won't cause damage and yet considering any person trying to run their car on the wrong fuel as 'beyond stupid'. What's the difference? Stupid and stupider? You are going through a series of big changes and now would be a good time to include this one. If you stay off this fizzy stuff for 3-6 months and then try a can you will be stunned that you ever enjoyed it. You are hooked because your taste buds are crooked.

Please contact your surgeons office asap. This does not sound right.

So you ate it all and were 'comfortably full' how far through the sandwich were you when you were 'not hungry'? because that's when you should have stopped. Tools don't fix things on their own...you have to use them and if you overload or abuse tools....THEY BREAK!

Nah, not a fan and he ain't comin near my port!! :-v If you decide to go down this path though I would like to hear how it goes for you or anyone else who has it done this way.

I think it probably sounds like a good idea to someone who laks decent restriction but to anyone who has been too tight or had something stuck they would recognise the danger of this method, run away, don't look back!! A new bandster hell would be created...one where every new bandit done with this method would have no idea what or how to eat and would probably spend most of their time struggling to get Fluid in. Learning curve....what learning curve...that would be being thrown in at the deep end.

the more you bring things up the more you are going to swell. Stop trying for a couple of days and just have lots to drink to give the swelling a chance to go down. Drink lots of liquids of course, Soup, soluble fibre etc. Hope it gets better soon.

just a suggestin but if you are throwing up a lot and not able to eat good food then your band is either too tight or you are swollen from all the retching. You should not be feeling like this.

If you are not eating as much or as regularly then you probably don't need Metformin ER and could change to ther regular one that can be broken into a million pieces (or more) You need to get this sorted as the increase in fasting blood sugar will make you gain weight and counter-act your good restriction. You need to take this medicine.

Luckily I didn't have to self pay but knowing what I know now, 12 months later and 44kgs down...if I had to go back and make the decision to self pay or not have it done...I would pay up no contest. It's not easy but it is simple.

I used to get this now and again. It was as if someone was pushing their knee in the middle of my chest and their fist in my back....makes you understand why babies cry. Sipping boiled Water or peppermint tea, as hot as you can bear, lots of little sips often helps to move it out. OR... a tsp of bicarb in water...tastes foul...burps real good and brings the gas out with it. Hope it feels better soon.

Very, very true Brad.

If we are taling about post op gas pain then I have one that seemed to work for me. My friend and her sister, who are both highly experienced nurses, told me that if you keep the oxygen mask on for as long as possible post op, the high levels of oxygen you are taking in helps to absorb the excess CO2 and prevent shoulder tip pain.

The effectiveness of the band is directly related to the effort you put in to it. The foods you list as 'real food' favourites are all highly processed white flour products and responsible for your predicament. We all make changes to live with the choice we have made to improve our lives. You will probably have to give up the majority of your processed white flour favorites but what will you be swapping them for...longer, healthier life? Fair swap or not?

I'm very similar hunger pattern by the sounds of it. I only have tea or cold drinks until mid afternoon. May be a cuppa Soup around lunch time if I feel like I need something a bit thicker. LIke this I seldom get stuck. If I eat solids before about 3pm then it is a recipe for disaster. Once I can eat then I just have to make good sensible choices. Stop looking for 'full' or 'satisfied' settle for 'not hungry' and you may be able to adjust your intake to match your restriction. I have had this pattern of restriction for months now and have lost 95lbs.

Hello, well you sound like you're in a fix...you obviously have some bad eating habits happening there that you could be working on one bit at a time. If you make drastic changes to your eating and exercise you may feel good for a while but it is seldom sustainable. Anyone making that many changes would go back to their old habits or at least most of them. It is too stressful and takes us out of our comfort zone so it all collapses. They make Reality TV shows out of how bad the stress is when you go from over-eating couch potato mode onto a super angelic diet and he-man exercise routine. It is just not practical in the real world as you have found out. It also puts your heart and other organs under even more stress. When was the last time you had a heap of tests done at the docs? Thyroid especially. You need to look at changing your eating to Low GI. Slowly. If you take one step forward and never go back then it is better than taking 20 steps forward and not being able to stay there :-( I can give you loads of good, sensible suggestions on how to take the first of your steps to get this under control but only if you want to hear them :-) It's the old 'even a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step' thing and if you are trying to run before you can walk then you probably aren't moving forward at all. You are obviously smart and probably know deep down what you should be doing but I thing we get past rational reasoning and action at times like these. I had undiagnosed medical conditions that kept me fat all my life and when one was resolved then another made it even worse. I am 46 and learnt what works and what doesn't with weight loss. I can tell you that you should never go 'on a diet' but make small permanant positive changes, one at a time, to improve your food intake and give your body better fuel. I'll shut up for now but if you would like to hear more then you know where to find me....right here. Good luck and if you look really carefully I am sure you will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And just because one doc has knocked you back that does not mean they all will. While you are finding out if you can find one that will take you on; you can be making the first of the changes that you will have to make banded or not. Good luck.

Thanks...by the end of 2 weeks even the dogs dinner looks tempting :-)

If you have PCOS and most of your weight gain is from that then you may not need a band if you find a good PCOS Doc who will give you the metformin and hormone treatment you need. You do need to eat a Low GI diet though...that is an absolute must!! High quality, slow release carbs will stabilise your blood sugar and help you. I lost 20 kg with Metformin and hormone treatment and walking the dog. No band involved....then unfortunately my thyroid packed up and I put on 30kg in 12 months. That's when I gave in and had my lovely band. I was diagnosed PCOS at 42 and you are 11 years younger than me...I also had my first child at 32 so you have 12 months on me there too....Low GI...give it your best shot...it really is worth it. Oh and don't forget to push for that metformin...essential.

see how you go :-) I'm a bit of a carb addict...I eat crucny ryvita with whole grains in them, just a 1/6th at a time...low GI too. Cruncy goes down better that chewy whicch tends to stay in a bit of a lump. Every day is a learning curve.

Hi Marykb, it's a real bad idea to drink liquids on top of solids...adds pressure and may cause you pain. Have you had a fill in the last 2 weeks? How much restriction have you got? are you hungry when you have your brekky or would the empty feeling subside with a drink of tea or another hot drink? Sounds like it might be time for you to move away from bread based foods that tend to turn to dough in your mouth. You need to change your eating pattern and see if it makes a difference. I hope you work it out soon.

Well hello there...I had a similar problem at easter...my pharmacist told me it was fine to break them open and mix them in with a little yogurt or something similar. The first ones I took didn't stick because my throat was so swollen they would only go down one way(big ouch!!) As the swelling subsided that is when the 'fun' started and I had a word with my pharmacist. They taste really disgusting...very bitter and you realise why they wrap them in a capsule in the first place. Sadly not everything in life can taste like cadbury's chocolate. Pharmacists tend to be more up on what you can do with your meds anyway, drugs and their interactions, effects etc are their speciality. Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.