general_antiope

Hi all, I can't post to our feb group from my phone so I'm posting here. I'm at the hospital ready for my 12 pm surgery. My band is getting replaced and I am so psyched to be a big loser again!!

I completely missed these forums - I'd put together a Feb 2013 Group - hehe. Doh.

Moving around much better. My gas shoulder pain is diminished and I'm on liquid Tylenol. I felt totally and completely awful yesterday, let me tell you. But it gets better so fast. I should be discharged in a few hours and start the 3 hr trip home. The doc said because my stomach was so skinny she could have filled it to 4 but left it empty to be safe. For which I'm glad. Trying to drink all the Water I can ... While I still can take a somewhat normal mouthful ... And have decided that Propel sucks. Hope my other Feb 4 bandsters are ok! And I think someone is getting banded today but I can't view the group on the iPhone.

Yep!! Lol.

Hi ladies! Bit of a bumpy start for me but improving. I have a morphine sensitivity and get heart palpitations so they go with different drugs. Well the other drug was doing it, too, so it took like 6 hours to get my pain out of control. Of course the majority of the pain is gas, and every time u get out of bed I'm doing better bit by bit. I haven't done a lap yet but can get in and out of bed on my own. I'm staying overnight and hope to be discharged tomorrow. Doc said my stomach was really skinny

Thanks Susan!! How sweet This is a fun journey and it's made all the sweeter with good companions. Looking forward to being a big loser with you!

Thanks ladies! Cindy, we're not sure if I'll be overnight. It's possible, but the plan from the hospital is to discharge me in the evening as long as I'm cool. Susan, I probably won't sleep. I just finished packing everything but the toiletries, I bought some zip front clothes and big loose shirt/pants for the post op bloating. Slippers too, as I have no plans to bend over more than I need to

akwright I'm in awe. I didn't go to the Super Bowl party with my husband for just that reason!

Hi all - getting some last minute hydration in for my surgery tomorrow. All in all I did OK on the pre op diet. On Friday I took my 3 month old out for a day at the mall. I was under 1000 calories all week but then Friday it caught up with me. I went to the food court and walked around, completely not tempted by anything bad (amazing!!!) but I started getting faint and woozy. That never happens to me. But the dizziness would not stop, and I started getting scared, I was 30 miles from home at a huge mall with my baby...alone. I was waiting at a smoothie bar to get a Protein Shake and then went instead to Subway and got a low fat sandwich (6" flat bread with chicken, spinach, Tomato, no cheese or dressing). Can I tell you how delicious it was? Hah. Oh well, never to be eaten again. It helped. I was dizzy for another hour, then it subsided. As expected I just despise liquid diets and basically stuck to low fat the rest of the weekend, under 1000 calories and 35g of fat. I also have been getting in 50+g of Protein, so I'm sure my liver is a happy camper. Gawd, I hate Protein Shakes, lol. Looking forward to having my hunger eradicated. I will miss pizza Hut, but I miss my size 12's and a belt more.

NJDanielle27, MandaMom23, FloridaSunshine are getting banded TOMORROW!! Let's wish them all -- Good luck and keep us posted! Here we go!

Yay you're all on the mend! Danielle, water is critical. If you get enough in, you will have a BM. Dehydration plus pain pills can cause serious constipation and even impaction (been there...you do not want to go there!). You need nutrients. Get used to needing to force yourself to eat When your swelling goes down and you get a good fill that's kind of how it is most of the time. You hear the growling, but you don't *feel* it and eating is sometimes optional. Please. please please drink water and get some nutrients in, it's critical for your healing right now!

akwright, what a great response. Thank you! The gas pains are tolerable, they suck, but they are temporary The surgery recovery woes will fall away! In fact, soon after surgery most people feel "disappointingly normal" LOL. Like "I don't feel the band. This sucks." It's there, and as the weeks pass and you start getting fills it will work. It sounds like you are so ready for this. Looking forward to the journey with you!

Thank you for posting pics LadyDreads and Cynthia! YES it takes a lot of courage. I'll have my husband take some before pics of me this week, too.

The rearview mirror is my best friend. I'm always consulting it, flicking between the road ahead and what has just passed. For me, I'm obsessed with understanding and learning. I never take "I don't know" as an answer. There ARE no mysteries, there is always a reason. Maybe we don't understand it at the time, but that's what rearview mirrors are for; they are the teacher's answer key. And the more I know, the better I get. So here I am one week from getting my band replaced and am glancing at the rearview of my band failures and successes. I feel very different than the first time I was banded, and it's made even clearer by the new people I am befriending here on LBT. All the questions and the anxiety and the excitement, it's like looking at a photograph. It makes me smile and I'm probably more excited for their journey than they are, knowing what's coming. I want to be a good leader, a great example, and most of all I want to not repeat my own mistakes (for I am still a human leader). I wasn't perfect on the band like many others I see. I have a food addiction. And the first step in anything is owning up to your misses. I remember the first few months with the "magic fill" - I was a kid in a candy store, eating cookies and ice cream or high fat stuff. I would MARVEL that literally, two squares of a Hershey's bar would satisfy me. I would fold up the candy bar and put it in my desk drawer. I'd open the drawer just to look at it and boggle at the fact that I didn't WANT it, and I could say no. That never, ever happened to me. I destroy food like Godzilla with a hangover. I would sneak ice cream as a 7 year old when my mom was in the shower. The taste of food was unparalleled joy, all the time. And I enjoyed my bad food for a while when I was newly banded, because I had power over food for the first time in my life. I did eventually get too cocky and the band would interrupt a nice dinner I'd made or purchased, and all the food was put away because I had to PB, or just felt awful. Try having something stuck on a date....ruins the mood. I needed to go through that embarrassment and wake up call to get back in balance. Play time was over, it was time to work. Then I got in line with the band; roasting chicken thighs and carrots for dinner, portioning things out. Talking more with whomever I was with and letting food fall to the background. I never felt deprived because my food choices were just that - MY choices. It was so empowering I cannot even describe it. I literally felt like a normal person because my relationship with food was changing. This time around, I'm not even interested in bad food, or the permission to have it in small quantities. I have tasted normal sized clothing, I have tasted normal relationships with food, and I absolutely hate where I am now. I'm 40 lbs less than my heaviest, but I feel worse than I ever have. For 6 months now I've been heavy (half the time with a baby...the last 2 months of pregnancy were awful!) or healing from a c section, and lugging around more fat with sleep deprivation. I used to feel GREAT! I want to feel GREAT again. The band makes me feel GREAT because I feel in control. I am out of control now. And rereading my past entries, I fought and fought for stability with a constantly failing band and a less than ideal mindset. I am blessed and lucky to have a second chance. I'm not squandering it. Open eyes, looking ahead and behind, changing the bad and repeating the good. It's not all daisies on the journey, but yeah, when you get there, it's a freakin' field of flowers

Glad to hear it Mandy!!

Onamission, you have a great attitude! I'm so glad BCBS has your back, too. (I love them.)

Yes, Jewels, and people should understand too that your body is made to adapt to anything you throw at it. Eating badly? Your body works harder to process it, like sugars, which leads to pancreatitis or diabetes when you're older, cause the system is being burned out at a faster rate. Even when you walk into the hot sun, your body changes to deal with it. You get used to the heat. It's the same for weight loss. Rapid weight loss is not a happy event for your body. It freaks out, may put you in starvation mode to hold onto the fat stores if you're constantly eating under 1000 calories. Or, if you're not in starvation mode, it could just be giving your body a break from breaking down and eliminating fat. Those are plateaus. All you need to know is that the math will always owe you. And when you're on a plateau, drink more Water and practice patience! If you are eating less than your base metabolic rate every day, it will come off. (Not counting additional metabolic issues like PCOS or other conditions that are known to inhibit weight loss)

Gowalking is absolutely right...the passive aggressiveness isn't to sabotage you so much as to console himself that YOU aren't really changing/leaving him. Food is a way to be close to someone. Ask any Italian It's currency for love, some times. Maybe your hubby needs to reassure himself that you still love him. Mine did the same thing, I let myself get off my liquids day 1 at the end of the night because he offered me a bite of pepperoni stromboli TWICE when I declined TWICE. And I know he liked his hot wife. So I know he doesnt' want me to be heavy, but food has been our mutual passion for a few years. It's a hobby. Hard to break those.

I'm up early thinking about you ladies (and my own surgery on Monday!!)...sending good thoughts for a flawless surgery and speedy recovery

Regarding gas pains...if memory serves, yes it was a B**** of a pain but it ached more than burned, if that makes sense. Felt like I pulled my shoulder. I found it more annoying than agonizing...and I didn't take pain meds the first day after surgery. I also, back then, didn't know about the Gas X. They recommended it but I wasn't told to specifically take the Gas X for shoulder pain. I probably toughed it out more than I needed to. Everyone's experience is different, and I'm really hoping all of us have tolerable discomfort that leaves quickly!

[quote name=APPROVED Candace83' timestamp='1359643064' post='1932966] I started my pre op today..i ate at 6 am and still feel full as hell...high Protein is the kicker I guess..anyway.can someone invite me to the Feb bandsters? when i click join it doesnt do anything...Feb 14th is my surgery date. 2 weeks! Try going back to the group and clicking "Group Discussion" from the right hand side. The groups will be getting overhauled in the next few weeks and I'm told things will be easier to navigate!

Also, understand that your body has a caloric requirement every day just to keep everything running. That's called your base metabolic rate (BMR). Lets say you weigh 250 lbs, and your BMR is 2500 / day. Whether mushy or liquid it's all about calories so eating 1000 a day will cause you to burn fat stores to meet the 2500 requirement. If you google base metabolic rate there are lots of free calculators out there to tell you how much you burn at rest in a day.

lmao @ the lycra comment. And damn girl, I'm going out to buy a size 10 bikini now. What a woman you are!! Thank you for the inspiration, congrats to you.