grizzlyrider

Well it's the day after Thanksgiving and I am starting my first blog. Not so sure what I'll say but will start by saying how grateful I am to have this band. It gave me control yesterday without any feeling of being deprived. They say it is only a tool but it feels like a magic tool to me. I truly feel like the day of my surgery was the first day of the rest of my life. Today, I am not going into a frenzy of eating because I was so controlled yesterday. This is the first time in my life that I do not feel I am at the mercy of my food addiction. Yeahhhhh! With that thought, that is my first blog!:cursing:

I didn't envy my family's heaping plates at all. I just kept thinking, Thank God I am not doing that again this year and will not have to hate myself for it tonight. That is one of my happiest revelations - I do not hate myself every evening for overeating all day every day! Yeah!

If you have too much saline in your band and "stuff" yourself, it will get stuck and drinking something, milk or anything else will not help, it will be stuck right along with the food. I think some burping goes along with the band but excessive burping may very well mean you need to get an unfill. I am surprised you'd be overfilled after one fill but who knows, it is possible.

I don't think it would hurt to call your doctor. I was banded Aug 31 and was very surprised at how much my port area hurt. It felt like a great big pinch all the time. They should really warn people about that, I was sure I had ripped it and that it was free floating around in my body. When I had my 6 week follow up my surgeon kind of chuckled and said it was right where he left it. It did hurt a lot though and being I didn't know it was supposed to I had a lot of senseless worry. But, go ahead and call your doctor, they should be able to ease your mind.

You're allowed to have pissed off days. It's hormonal, its natural and you are coping well if I do say so. Hang in there.

I remember the feeling. Once you are done with them you will forget all about it but for now just remember it is just temporary. Can you eat something like tomato soup? I still remember the first tomato parmesan bisque soup I ate after 2 weeks of shakes - heaven! I don't even like tomato soup!

I don't think I have ever really felt good in my body either. I was "chubby" as a child and just grew up feeling ugly and huge (I look back at pictures now and that is a pretty big distortion) I want to feel good in my body, I want to walk without knee pain, I want to dance again, I want to ride my bike and I want to kiyak. By next summer, I'll be ready to do some of that!

I think that as long as it doesn't get stuck you should eat whatever you want - just a tiny bit which you will be satisfied with anyway. In my opinion we have all tried denying ourselves the food we want, replacing it with no fat food that tastes like plastic or worse and it did not work for us. Now is the time we can eat like we are supposed to, normal, real food like normal, real people. Just my opinion.

I agree that the support group is important. Even the most supportive friends and family must get tired of listening to me talk about my band. I find I want to talk about it all day - probably because I am always thinking about it and how happy I am with it. With the support group you can not only talk about it but find out how others are thinking. It's kind of a "band fix!"

Hi, I'd like to join this group too. I was banded on 8/31/09. Although my family and friends are very supportive, I sometimes feel like I will bore them to death talking about my band! Now this may seem silly but I have a heck of a time figuring out how much I have lost. Do you all count from the very beginning when you started all the presurgery appointments, or are you counting from your surgery date. Logically, I reason that my highest weight was at the very beginning but when I count from there I feel like I am cheating. So, bottom line, on your tickers, are you counting from post surgery?:thumbup:

Band Groupie: Last May in your blog you wrote about your "Ah Ha" moment and what your new lifestyle would and would not include. I just need to tell you that when I read that I thought it was exactly how I wanted to use this tool. I printed it and keep it handy to read - it was such an inspiration to me and kept me going all those presurgery months. Now that I've been banded I still read it and really want you to know how much you inspired me.

This is my first holiday season since being banded and my thoughts are more like "thank God I am not going to be eating my way through the holidays this year, I'm not going to be powerless over the goodies and will not have to beat my self up in January!" I always felt so powerless before - I don't anymore. Happy Holidays!

Oh yeah, I would think of you as being in southern MN! haha! Anyway, got my fill today. It's really kind of a creepy thing isn't it. I'm so impressed that you lost so much weight with only 2 fills - you must be really determined!

I was banded 8/31/09 and it's going great. I get my 2nd fill tomorrow - have lost 22 lbs since surgery and hoping for a whole lot more! Where are you? I grew up in Grand Rapids

I see a lot of people from down in the cities - anyone else here from "up north?"

It sounds pretty exciting to me! I'm still in the stretch jeans (banded Aug 31) but I'm looking forward to more "normal" clothes too! Congratulations!!!