BetsyB

I'm with Jen. While I wouldn't recommend advancing your diet early without input from your doctor, I would suggest calling the office and asking. Many times, people get the green light to move ahead.

You haven't ruined anything for yourself! You might need to reevaluate why you had this surgery, and what it represents to you...or, more importantly, how it can free you from this line of thinking. Are you self-sabotaging? Or are you just having minor occasional indulgences of the sort that every life has a bit of room for? Really, the fatalistic, "Now I've done it!" no longer has a place in your life. You're no longer in an either/or, on-diet/off-diet rollercoaster. Now you have an amazing tool to help you. It gives you remarkable leeway---and still, you will succeed. Do you want to continue down the ice cream and sherbet path on a routine basis? Probably not. But if you're making otherwise healthy choices, and are losing weight well, there's no cause for worry if you have an occasional treat. It's really hard to let go of the old messages in our brains. But we don't need them any more. Truly.

I'm glad things ....worked out :confused:

Six months before surgery :confused: Post-op, I started them the day I got home--no problems at all. Congrats on your new band!

Specifically geared to banding, or one that can help in other ways (with your relationship to food, etc)?

I bet the orientation seminar will really ease your mind. Good luck!

Congratulations on your new band! Bariatriceating.com has LOTS of great recipes for each stage postop.

Are you sure that weight loss will rule you out? I'd double-check with your insurance. In my case, the ONLY weight that mattered, in terms of BMI /approval for surgery, was the weight from my very first appointment with the bariatric surgeon. I had the BMI of 40 required for surgery---but by the time all my paperwork was submitted for final approval, I was below 40. Your policy will spell it out for you--and your surgeon's insurance specialist will be able to confirm if you have any questions about interpreting the policy.

Take a deep breath. Remember, even though your incisions are tiny, your body's been through a lot. You underwent general anesthesia, had gas and instruments introduced to your abdomen, had your organs manipulated, had a band wrapped around your stomach, and had a port attached to your muscle wall. (The latter is what causes the most pain.) OUCH! Yes, the pain you are feeling is normal. It will taper off over the next several days. In the meantime, don't hesitate to use the pain medication your doctor prescribed. It will allow you to be active; walking as much as possible really helps the gas they use to inflate the abdomen dissipate, which relieves a good deal of the pain. I hope you feel better fast. (I know you will!)

This is an awesome rule of thumb, Leigha! Very useful, and simple to use.

Missy, they make coccyx pillows. They have a region cut out so that there is no pressure places on the coccyx. Here's a link to a few at Amazon, just to give you an idea. I know lots of people who've had WLS who use them and get lots of relief. Amazon.com: coccyx pillow

As a former NYer, I really don't think NYC is unique in terms of human responses; you're no more likely to get raised eyebrows there than anywhere else. And what that means is that there will be very few raised eyebrows. Really, people will pay far, far less attention to what you order than you think. (If the server raises an eyebrow? S/he's just mentally calculating tip; you can make this a non-issue by tipping well. I guarantee, when you return, there will be no more eyebrow-raising.) Really, people are all about themselves. However, In a business setting, there may be a dynamic in which others place their orders based on what you order. In that case, you want to make clients (or others) feel comfortable, and that might mean modifying your order so that they feel more comfortable with theirs. But otherwise, it's pretty reasonable to assume that the only ones paying strict attention to what goes into our mouths is us. It's just not nearly as interesting to others as we fear.

It sounds like you reached the point of readiness well before she did. That doesn't really speak to her value as a person---it just means she's not in the same place you are. Hopefully, she'll jump on your wagon a bit down the road. For now, about all your can do is model the kind of behaviors you wish she'd adopt.

The band is kind of fickle---and it's pretty common for it to be tighter at one time of day or another. I used to be tighter in the morning, but now I, too, am tighter at night. It's weird, but I just adjust what I eat accordingly.

It sounds like the best plan EVER. Seriously, learning how to eat the way you'll eat when banded is a great idea.

It's always a good idea to go with your gut. While I now wish I'd done it sooner, I simply wasn't at the right place for it sooner. If it's right for you, you'll know it :biggrin: Good luck!

Yep, I did. It was no biggie. I didn't tell them about it--saw no real need to share. I was perfectly able to handle it myself, postop. Don't stress about it--even if you have to share it with medical personnel, it's not like it's something they haven't ever dealt with! From what I understand, it's really common for women to start their periods during or immediately after surgery, too. No worries---it's just one of those things.

Yep, the hiccuping postop is really common. The surgery can irritate the phrenic nerve, which triggers hiccups. They tend to taper off with time--though I've found that a single hiccup is now my cue to stop eating RIGHT NOW. I usually stop pre-hiccup (other stop-eating signals reach me first), but if I don't "hear" those signals and reach the hiccup stage, I know that one more bite will push me over the limit.

Skin is remarkable. And for some people---those who have not been morbidly obese long-term, people who have not gained and lost repeatedly in their lives, people with just the right genetic makeup, people who have not had multiple pregnancies, and so on---skin can and does quite often rebound beautifully. The website you cited shows a lot of these people (if, in fact, their claims about having had no plastic surgery are true). I think it's reasonable to assume that there are some people on this board who could expect similar results if they got their BMIs way down and exercised at that level. But would most? No. They would improve their appearances dramatically. They would reduce the degree to which a surgeon had to intervene. But they would still be left with redundant skin. Who suggested it was a ridiculous notion to lose fat and gain muscle?! I did not even begin to suggest there was nothing to be done for a belly, short of surgery. My first recommendation was losing extra subcutaneous fat--which often results in the person determining the "problem" is largely solved, making surgery unnecessary. Next, I recommended exercise. Both of these yield awesome results for the body. Adding lean mass, however, will do absolutely nothing to address skin redundancy. As you stated yourself, skin is an organ. But then, you suggest that you can somehow change its composition. And that is where your thinking become skewed. Skin is skin. Muscle is muscle. And never the twain shall meet. You cannot replace redundant skin with lean muscle. All you can do is create a beautiful scaffold for the skin. Will this achieve an aesthetic that obviates the need for reconstructive surgery? Sometimes. No one other than you is suggesting an either/or approach to achieving a healthy, appealing body. The fact is that diet and exercise are crucial. But even with these, the skin may not rebound. When this occurs, plastic surgery is an alternative. And this, really, is indisputable. If you're interested, there is lots of peer-reviewed literature that addresses the topic.

Yep---only with regular meal-time food. My capacity is about 4 ounces, if the food is solid. Any more, and my body says, "Nope!" and tosses it right back up. If you had prolonged pain, I wonder if you had something stuck, and it took that long for it to work its way through the stoma....

I have a set of Mario Batali measuring bowls. I got them from Entertaining at Home, but they carry them at Target. I use those to measure foods I don't weigh. Then I can eat directly from the same bowl. I am NOT super-careful when measuring green leafies---their nutritional contribution is near-nil, and while I don't want to overdo (I mean, the pouch only holds so much---and the veggies are served alongside protein), I know that if I err by a leaf or two, it really won't make any difference in terms of calories or carbs or anything like that. So, I toss 'em in the right size bowl loosely, and stop eating when I'm full. DO be careful with leafies at first. It's easy to swallow them before you've chewed enough, and if too big, little leaf fragments can kind of lie across the stoma and make it difficult for other things to move through. Shredding, at first, isn't a bad idea. But you'll learn to chew the daylights out of it! (I was like you--I couldn't wait to have salad--I was dreaming about it on my preop diet, and had to wait for 2 months postop to add it back in....let me tell you, it was the BEST thing I ever tasted!)

You're not going to like what I write at all, but the very first thing that leaps out from your menu---after skipping dinner (and there has to be a way to get something nutritious in your body for dinner, if only a good-quality protein shake)--- is refined carbohydrate and "fake food" that's high in sodium, but not so high in nutrition. You don't have to give up Pringles and Wheat Thins forever. Or Smart Ones. They probably shouldn't ever be the mainstay of your diet, but there's room in your life for them. But during the time when you're aiming for maximum weight loss, you need to eat as though that's your aim. And your body will respond far more cooperatively if you give it lean protein (including legumes), nonstarchy veggies, heart-healthy fats, and whole grains and fruit in moderation. It will also lose more efficiently if you don't skip meals, but rather, provide fuel consistently throughout your day. What would happen if you replaced your Special K cereal bar with a protein-based snack? Something like fat-free cottage cheese or yogurt and fruit, maybe with a sprinkle of ground flax seed? What would happen if, instead of eating a Smart One for lunch, you had a couple of wraps of sliced turkey breast and cheese on romaine lettuce (or even a low-carb wrap)? They don't take longer to prepare, but are healthier and more satisfying. How about having a real dinner every night? Maybe a 3-4 ounce serving of lean protein and some nonstarchy veggies? It doesn't take long to prepare or eat---even for someone babying a band----and would give your body nutrients it needs. I bet you'd see the scale behaving differently. I see lots of advice here telling you to keep doing what you're doing. Mine would be to make some changes to see if they help you move toward your goal. I do NOT mean to minimize your great progress so far. But it sounds as though you're frustrated and hitting the wall, so I thought I'd toss my $0.02 in, for what little it's worth. (:biggrin: it's worth exactly $0.02.) Good luck!

Yes, I can feel it just beneath the surface of my skin. I can't yet see it, but am sure that, a few pounds from now, I will be able to. It's common---and it's also common, for those who do have abdominoplasty when they reach goal, to have the surgeon switch to a low-profile port.

Yes, those doctor clearances are customary. How long you must wait depends on the specific insurance policy you or your employer purchased from UHC; depending on the coverage purchased, there may be a requirement that you have dietary supervision for 3-6 months. Before you gasp, my insurance required 3 months, and the time was gone by the time I got all the other appointments taken care of---it goes quickly! The only way to know for sure what is ahead of you is to get a copy of your policy and read it carefully. It will very clearly spell out how they manage bariatric surgery. Good luck! No matter what the wait, you'll soon be among the banded. Use the time until then to really educate yourself about what to expect postop so there aren't any big surprises :biggrin:

I've got all my everythings crossed for you, Bobbie--sounds promising!