Melinco

I hear you, Lolly! I'm ok, unless I get to talking. Then it's like Whoa! Carefull!

Prior to surgery, my doc gave me a prescription of scopolamine (sp?) Patches (anti-nausea) to wear. There were lots more in the box than I needed just for the surgery. He said any time I feel nausea coming on, to put on one. He extended the prescription for a year, as he said that you want to avoid vomiting at all costs. In fact, he said if I were to get a bad stomach flu, to come in right away and he'd remove all the fill, so that the chances of slippage is drastically reduced. Of course, right now I have no fill, but this was for future reference.

Ah $h!t. Well, there goes that! lol Thanks for the info, won't be doing that again!

Dayum, dude, way to go! Keep up the fantastic work!

Okay, I don't remember which board is pre-op and which board is post-op, so I'll just post this here (perhaps we can adjust the titles to add pre-op and post-op so we don't forget). Anyway, here are my stats. Weight yesterday is from my support group meeting: Summer visit to PCP (highest weight): 294 1st visit to surgeon - 11/2/09: 288 Pre-op visit - 12/7/09: 282 Day of surgery - 12/17/09: 268 1/5/10: 261 Weight lost since this summer: 33 pounds Weight lost since 1st visit: 27 pounds Weight lost since pre-op visit: 21 pounds Weight lost since surgery: 7 pounds Their scales had me at 261, fully clothed, where my scales show me 261.4 naked. So I guess my scales are just a tad over? That's okay, I'll take either one!

If you don't mind my asking, why did you have to be rebanded three days later? Did you have serious complications?

It's tough. I'd usually have one with lunch and dinner, and then one in the afternoons to help me get through the day. What brought my craving on today was when I was upstairs in our breakroom at work eating my lunch, when the soda machine started to get stocked. I saw her bring in the flat of diet pepsis and other sodas, and that's all it took! I will admit that I had my assistant, on her way back from her lunch, stop at a local 7-11 convenience store and get me a small cola flavored icee (about 12 oz). It's just the cola flavor, no carbonation. I drank about 1/2. I didn't want to drink anymore due to the calories. But I don't want to do that too often as it's too many calories in a liquid. However, it scratched my itch, for today!

Oh, I may have to try that. Our grocery store just recently started carrying greek yogurt. Thanks for the idea!

Thanks, Donna. I seem to hiccup often these days. I took some tylenol just a bit ago (cramps) and I hiccupped after taking those too, but only for a minute or so. I have my support group meeting tonight, so I'll tell the doctor about it and see what he thinks. Just like when you have kids that don't come with a manual, the band really doesn't either, huh?

Rather than dipping your raw veggies in ranch dressing, make a substitute that is good for you. 1/2 cup cottage cheese 1/2 to 1 tsp. dry Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning Put cottage cheese in blender or small food processor. Blend until smooth. May add a few drops of skim milk to make thinner if you prefer. Add ranch seaonsing, mix well. Serve with favorite fresh veggies. This is the only way I'll eat cottage cheese. I don't like its texture, but if I blend it smooth, then I can't tell the difference. This way, you get the ranch flavoring you crave while eating your protein! Win-Win!

It's been 20 days. 20 l.o.n.g. d.a.y.s. Since I've had a diet pepsi. Can I just say I'm majorly jonesing for one right now? My craving for my throat burning, caffeine delivering, bubbly substance is about to do me in! Ack! Is there a meeting I can go to? Does someone want to be my sponsor? Can you come hold my hand as I go through my withdrawals?

Good luck Great Ex, with your f/u appointment tomorrow. I go tonight for my first post-op support group meeting. I'll weigh in, so it will be interesting to see what those scales will have me at. This morning, my scales at home remained steady at 261.4 pounds, same as yesterday. Of course, that's without my clothes on. Tonight's weighing will be fully clothes sans shoes. My official pre-op weight was 288. Day of surgery it was around 274. I've lost another 13 pounds since. My heighest weight, which I took at a PCP dr appt in July was 294. I too have been adding exercise to my days. Since 1/1, I've exercised every day except on Sunday. I joined the January exercise challenge. My goal is 30 miles in January to walk. My first fill is 2/2.

For the most part, plain spices (not spice mixes that you buy prepackaged - like 3 Alarm chili seasoning) have neglible carbs. The prepackaged mixes tend to have carbs as they add sugar, flour, etc., to the mix. Like BT said, watch your salt intake. Good luck!

Not sure about the new job, but after I was off 10 days (I timed it to coincide with Christmas so rather than 5 days off work I was off 10 days - including weekends). Once I was back to work, I was fine. I am watching the clock so I don't drink too soon after eating, but it's going well. You know yourself the best. If you think you'd have a hard time learning the ins and out of both your band and a new job at the same time, perhaps you should get the job first, then have the band later, or vice versa. Good luck!

Yes, if you mix Crystal Light (or even some fresh fruit juice - like lemon or lime or even a bit of orange) into your Water, it is still counted towards your water consumption. As far as good meals on the go, I like the light cheese sticks, yogurt, perhaps a few ham cubes or turkey cubes. I'm not much into smoothies or Protein drinks, so I try to eat my protein. Even some banana slices or other fresh fruit. But I think anything that you can cut up into small pieces, and pop in your mouth. Just make sure you chew well so you don't accidentally swallow too large of a piece of food and get stuck. It's easy to do if you get distracted, which may happen if a customer pops in unexpectedly. Good luck!

Yesterday evening, after work, I went to the grocery store to pick a few things up for dinner. When I got there, I was feeling a bit of pressure in my left chest, just under my collar bone. I thought that if I walked a bit more around the store, this would help. By the time I got done and out to my car, the pressure is even greater. I'm tempted to call my dr. right then but decide to wait until I get home, which would be in less than 5 minutes. I get home and bring my groceries in. I pull out my cell phone, see I missed a call from my husband, and try calling him. Get his voice mail, and tearfully tell him that I'm experiencing pain. I then look through my wallet to pull out my dr's business card. I decided that perhaps I do just have gas, and think I'll use the restroom. Doesn't help. Husband calls back, tell him what's going on, and he says to take some gas-x, and lay down and relax. He'd be home in 30 minutes. Now, I'm not sure if you recall, but yesterday I posted about getting hiccups after taking one of my antibiotics that I didn't cut in half. I bet I hiccupped for close to 5 minutes. And it felt, for the rest of the evening, like I had drank too much water, and that any moment it was going to come up. I'm wondering if the hiccups created a bunch of gas in me, or perhaps moved some gas around that may have been trapped. Anyway, by the time my husband got hom, 45 minutes later, the pain had subsided, but I still felt like I drank too much water. I ended up not calling my dr, but man, was that unpleasant! Normally, back in the immediate days post-op, if I had gas in my shoulder, it actually hurt on the outside of my arm, like where you'd get a tetnus shot. But this pain was in my chest on the left side, just under my collar bone. Let me tell you, the thought of a heart attack did cross my mind, but I didn't let it linger. Thank God it stopped. I didn't drink any more water until 9 pm. I just didn't want any after that.

Male or female. Penis or vagina. What else is there unless you think you are an animal? Even transgendered will identify as one or the other. So yeah, I don't get it. Please do educate me.

I don't think it's my incision, itself, which is tender, but just the area above and around it since the port is under there. When sleeping on my tummy at night, I have to shift things around so I don't put too much weight on my left side, where my port is.

Huh? Extra characters added to meet minimum character requirement.

I read this article in today's Denver Post - Surgical hope for obese teens - The Denver Post . What do you think? I'm not sure if it would be appropriate on a 13 or 14 year old, but 16 or 17 year old? Probably. But only if they can show that they are serious about it. If we all think back to when we were teens, even as overweight or obese teens, were we responsible enough to do something like this? I'm sure some will be, but I think I'd bump up the pyschological evaluations to be sure.

Pre-op, I was using www.my-calorie-counter.com. However, now that I have the band, I'm not counting calories. I'm still eating very limited amounts, so I'm not worried yet about calories. If that changes, then I may start counting again.

Mine is on my left side, just below my ribs, directly under my nipple (if you were to draw a line from my nipple downwards to below my ribs). I can currently feel it if I put a little pressure on my side. I expect that once I lose a serious amount of weight, I will be able to see it, but I highly doubt I'll ever be in a bikini, unless I get some serious plastic surgery. Also, from what I've read, there are low profile ports available, so it is possible once you've reached goal, your surgeon could replace your port with a low profile port so it won't be as noticable. I don't know if it would be completely invisible.

I too was banded 12/17. The only discomfort I have any more is at night when I first lay on my tummy. The swelling had pretty much gone from around my port, so when I lay down, I have to "arrange" myself so that I'm not putting too much weight on it, as I can definitely feel it. Also, I find that if I drink too much Water close to or right before bed time, my tummy is uncomfortable just because it's full of water. So I have to make sure not to do this again. lol But, the thing to keep in mind is that if something doesn't feel normal, do not hesitate to call your surgeon. It's better to have him check you out and find that all is OK, then to assume all is OK, then something go wrong. Good luck!

I'm 5' 5.5" tall and my initial goal weight is 160, which is still considered overweight. I figure, once I hit that, we'll see about readjusting it. Let me get there first, then I'll worry about it! lol

I am on antibiotics due to one of my incisions being slightly infected. They are kind of large tablets, but I have been taking them with no problem. I forgot to take one this morning so I had my husband bring it to me at work. I had to wait at least one hour after my lunch to take it, since it needs to be taken with lots of Water. Now that I've taken it, I've got the hiccups! And they won't stop! I'm wondering if perhaps the pill is stuck in the pouch or opening and the hiccups is my body's way of helping get it through? Any advice or suggestions? Thanks!