StephanieF

Had the same problem. Went to a nutritional MD gave me 17 diff supplements and even IV vitamins. The hair grew back once my weight stabilized. Sudden spurts in weight loss seemed to kick it in again. My hair will never be the thick curly hair it was. I started doing the Brazilian straightening (keratin) and my hair has grown a lot and is in great shape

Thank you for sharing your story. I've been thinking that the only doctor who hasn't seen me is my gyno. I made and appointment yesterday

That's not MY answer though. And I've had every test under the sun done, CT, MRI, colonoscopies..that's one healthy colon they all say.

How much zinc do you take daily, out of curiousity?

See, thing is, doesn't matter what it is, carrot sticks or doritos, you just eat too much too fast, LOL

LOL, next thread: A lesson in how to PB when you need to.:thumbup:

Once you start getting fills and the post-op care instructions are no longer relevant you get restriction with each fill. Some of us like a little more restriction than others.

Thinking that means thin-obsessed. And yes, I am about as superficial as they come right now. Why not? I've waited my whole life to be able to strut my stuff and look good doing it and NOT look at other women and say wow, I wish I looked like that...Now other women say that to me. I'm not projecting either, by the way, I am obsessed with staying thin and I'm also superficial and THE WHOLE POINT OF MY OTHER POST WAS TO SEE IF ANYONE ELSE WITH A TIGHT BAND HAD THE CONSTIPATION ISSUES AND HOW TO RELIEVE IT! You go the doctor and say you're constipated and they say eat this, eat that, drink this, take this take that, and I just can't handle some of it. It's just that simple and if you can find a support group for constipated people with a tight lap band, point me in the direction. yeah, the band is tight, but it's not TOO tight if I can eat all the very awful things I did to get here. It's more about consistency and porosity and bulk than anything else.

Good for you. Some of don't live in rural Australia, but rather NYC, so saving up for that extra expense of plastic surgery is pretty much impossible if I want to pay my rent and stuff like that. I work my ass off, it's not enough. I'm single because I recently ended a relationship, and I'm having a blast being the object of affection for men.

Really wasn't directed at you, my reply. I guess I'm on the defense here, and I'm really annoyed that I should have to be. nothing personal :thumbup:

I'm guessing he knows, since he's the one who gets all my emails when I have a flare up, he also did the fills, the unfills. And let's break apart what I can eat. I had a bowl of honey bunches of oats for Breakfast and a slice of eggplant parm for dinner. Doesnt' sound so bad. The only things I can't eat are grains like brown rice and bulky vegetables which I hate anyway and fruit. And I get the Vitamins through supplements. So, let's see, tuna salad, protein-check. smoked salmon and cream cheese-Protein, check. nachos...guacamole, avocado, Omega 3's-check, cheese, pinto Beans, protein-check, sour cream, yum- check. If I could still eat a turkey sandwich, i could still eat a slice of pizza, and i can't do either...doesn't mean i'm not eating healthy, i'm just not eating low fat high fiber. AND, considering I have nutritional blood work done regularly and NONE of my vitamins are deficient except for folic acid, which I am supplementing, what's the problem? Just because it's not "text book" food doesn't mean it's bad. And the reality is there are days the band is bitchy and all you can get down is something like ice cream. At least it's calories. It doesn't sound right, but this is the reality. The ice cream takes far less of a toll on my body than chicken broth which is LOADED with sodium. AND so many of the "judges" in here lost like 100 lbs in their first year, it took me 3, so, what's healthier? We coudl go back and forth for days, and that never was the intention here. But hey, I'm just getting warmed up. Bring it!

LOL, that's my girl! Seriously, the self-righteous BS is rather hilarious. Better we should say nothing, because this isn't intended to be a SUPPORT outlet or anything. Everyone has different things they need supported. It's so obnoxious to be judged on here, and if people are that dumb that they can't think outside of the box or what comes out of their doctor's mouth, or that dumb that they do stupid, reckless and harmful things to themselves based on what someone says on a message board, then I don't know, they have way more serious problems than us! Thanks, Kee. It's like, this is what I did, this is how I did it, this is the result, this is the down side, this is the up side. The down side sucks and I need help resolving it, but the up side is so much better! And I can't afford plastic surgery right now, AND I'm single, so yeah, if there's something wrong with setting my sights on a man with some money in his pocket as opposed to one without, um...I dunno, this seems like a nobrainer. I guess I'm a reckless, superficial, thin-obsessed, alarming, in-dire-trouble, HOT, THIN, SEXY, SINGLE BANDSTER? Works for me. :thumbup:

Yes, a VERY RICH MAN!

Um, not like I'm hiding anything here, and I have referenced my gastric problems numerous times in here. So, let's review, shall we? The issues started RIGHT AFTER SURGERY, I didn't have a tight band until about 7-9 months in, as also referenced herein. My body responded immediately to change in diet. the point of my post in the other thread was to seek tips in how to manage it. SINCE I GUESS YOU TWO ARE MY DOCTORS NOW, AND YOU KNOW ALL MY MEDICAL HISTORY AND WHAT PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS I HAD BEFORE I WAS BANDED, WHAT MEDS I WAS ON BEFORE SURGERY I WAS ON THAT I'M NO LONGER ON, ETC ETC, I'M REALLY JUST GOING TO SAY BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. I STILL WOULDN'T CHANGE A FREAKIN' THING. So, let's go back, since this started way before I had even close to a tight band, I didn't do this to myself. There are many people in the world who cannot tolerate wheat, gluten, Fiber, etc..and yes BEING THIN IS WORTH IT, AND I WILL FIND A SOLUTION. FINALLY, I THINK I HAVE SAID IN MOST OF THE POSTS THIS IS NOT MY ADVICE, IT'S MY EXPERIENCE. And with that, BLAH BLAH BLAH FANNIE AND JACHUT....really.

So can I ask how you're doing with maintaining? I'm really surprised to hear that with the unfill you still have such restriction! Are you keeping it off? I feel like if it were me I would be so anxious over keeping it off especially after the plastics. Are you exercising like crazy? I'm so intrigued, you're my motivation now! :thumbup:

Did I mention when I'm at home I eat standing up? Nothing like gravity...oh, and the only way i can eat is if I have some diet ginger ale. It's like a baby, I need to be burped. My ex used to see that face, you know the face, and would come and bang my back....I'm so jealous you had your plastic work done! I need to find me a rich man :thumbup:

OMG, ARE WE HAVING A MOMENT OF COMING OUT? That's awesome. That's it, I'm officially out of the closet. I'm a tight bandster and proud of it! LOL I have the night reflux on occasion. At one point I was waking up with the Fluid in the lungs and coughing myself awake. Another few weeks I was waking up with stomach acid shooting through my nose. Prilosec in the morning stopped it and it never resumed. But the nighttime can be tough. I know I can't lie down if I've eaten for hours after. Lying on the left keeps the stomach closed, but sometimes it is what it is. thank you for naming all this, the coming out. Awesome. Congrats on your journey, you look fabulous and good luck keeping it that way :thumbup:

Ooooh, scallops!

So there you are, all munched out after partaking....then what? My advice, just don't get started, you can't handle it, lol.

Ooooh, oooh, more things. Lox rolled up with cream cheese :thumbup: If you have any shabu shabu restaurants like Gyu Kaku around you the paper thin steak slices and zucchini slices worked too. Meatballs work. Oh the campbells southwestern corn soup was a staple and the progresso Pasta e fagiolini with a few second with the hand blender was divine. Froot Loops worked great til they went and added fiber. the wawa thin crip wafer crackers were a great vehicle for stuff like really creamy tuna salad. but what are we talking about here? A single meatball, a handful of frootloops with a squirt of milk, one cracker with tuna. No matter what you eat, you aren't eating a lot of it, bottom line.

LOL..we're like the evil bandsters. If this was easy everyone would do it! A friend of my mom's got banded and lost 20 lbs. She had one fill and couldn't handle the feeling of not being able to eat everything she wanted. She is seen eating pastrami sandwiches regularly and whining she didn't lose weight. I'm sorry, but there is a certain amount of misery involved in such a sweet end. They have a chart in the docs office which I can't believe I found online from three years ago, it tells the tale. So, what did I eat...well...nachos! I swear. The crunchy chip and the mushy Beans and guac and sour cream and cheese all went down. I couldn't eat a quesidilla cause the soft flour tortillas get all gummed up. But a hard taco shell and ground beef, all good. I used to be able to get a salad and if you take a pizza slicer and run it back and forth a couple times you get perfect chopped salad. If I could have brought my Cuisinart hand blender with me and stuck it in everything everywhere I went I would have, but my boyfriend said he would laugh at me. But I swear. I used to go for mexican food almost daily and then I would get the components and make a small plate of it in the microwave in 1 minute. But this isn't taco bell. It's corn chips, and preferably the solid ones and not the crumbly ones, guacamole, sour cream, pinto/refried beans and some cheese...I'm salivating thinking about it. Eventually I just got sick of it. There were days the band was just mad at me, and I endured about three weeks before an unfill, during which time I lost about 17 lbs, but all I ate was vanilla haagen daaz. Hungry Jack potatoes with heinz fat free chicken gravy..yum. At one point oatmeal was too heavy for me, but cream of rice with butter and salt, yum. Okay, I'm getting hungry and there is no eating at this hour or I'll be sitting vertical for the next 4 hours. Lately it's fried cod/fishsticks, or this place makes mashed potatoes with spinach, or yellow rice. Brown rice torments me for days, but yellow rice, I dunno. I now have to deal with the how it's going to go down and come out aspect since getting the IBS, so my choices are more limited. But since shortly after being banded I was not able to eat apples, peaches, pretty much fruit. I haven't eaten a sandwich in 3.5 years, or more than the tiny triangle at the bottom of the slice of pizza in as much time. Late night munchies after drinking, um, no thanks. Munchies after getting stoned, OMG...just make sure you aren't alone. Let's be real, we all know how to PB when we need to. There have been times I will just NEED to take a big ass bite of something I know won't go down and I just chew it out and spit it out. That is rare, but do what you gotta do. They're gonna ban my ass for being a bad influence, don't listen to me! :thumbup:

Zimmersdream, you remind me to bring up a good point. It took me 3 years to lose this 115 lbs. BUT, I've never gone backwards. I plateau, get fills, unfills, events in my life keep me more distracted from eating than others. I can only attribute the fact my skin has adjusted as it has to the slow weight loss. I kept a very close charting of my progress, and in the first year I lost 60 lbs, next year like 25, past year another 20. All of a sudden I drop another 5 lbs and another size every few months. Looking at other people's progress I was a slow loser, and I didn't really get good restriction until maybe 6 months into it. My doctor was very conservative with the amount of fill, but very liberal with how often I could come for a tweaking. I was going every two weeks. One week I went for a fill, an unfill and a slight fill. He thought I was nuts when I would say I want .1 cc today, but it always did the trick. (I have an old school band of 4cc, so my sweet spot was somewhere around 3 cc). I don't plan on loosening it. My body has adjusted to this level of caloric intake and if I loosened it it would once again be up to my will power and control to make good choices with food and exercise, which again, is not why I got this band. The thought of even gaining back 2 lbs is something that is not going to happen. At size 6, 2 lbs is the difference between the jeans fitting and not at times, lol. Plus note, I am one cheap date. I've been debating whether I should infuriate the masses by revealing my diet and the one food that I lost 60 lbs eating daily, but I haven't decided if the "judges" can handle it. Stay tuned, lol

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Finally, some real people! Amen. I know I didn't get banded to struggle, I did that my whole life. And if ever I feel like something's not right I email my doc and he says come in and get an unfill. But then I learned if I wait a day and just chill out everything calms down. Right or not, let's face it...if you're not eating many calories, you don't have many to burn at the gym. I did try it, but I was in calorie deficit and feeling so weak. We are a society that overeats. You can go to countries all over the world where not eating a lot is the norm.

I choose to let it control me. If I was in control of everything I'm guessing I would not have been 265 lbs. I am a healthy person..moreover, I really cannot believe I am sitting here defending myself. This is a tool, you use it, obviously in conjunction with your doctor's knowledge since he adjusts it, in different ways and what works for you. I've lost 115 lbs, and other than obvious problems that a lot of people have due to reduced food intake, I am a very healthy person. I'm going to stop responding to these posts. I know I am not the only person who went this route, and it is really those people I was interested in connecting with. For the rest, honestly, this is my reality, and I'm really not all that interested in your opinion on it. AGAIN, LOOKING TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Sorry to be so abrasive, but seriously...